'Well above the curve': Portsmouth chief addresses Toby Steward's Fratton Park future after sensational St Johnstone impact

Rich Hughes is convinced Pompey will reap the rewards from Toby Steward’s eye-catching St Johnstone stay.

And he is adamant the highly-regarded goalkeeper is firmly on track towards mounting a strong Blues first-team challenge in the future.

Steward is earning rave reviews at St Johnstone over his role in their table-topping start to the Scottish Championship season.

The 20-year-old joined the Saints on a season-long loan in July and was immediately installed as their number one keeper in the aftermath of relegation from the Scottish Premiership.

The former Henry Cort Community College pupil has subsequently flourished, establishing himself as a star performer during his 11 outings so far.

And Steward’s continued progress is being noted by Pompey, who believe the ‘uninhibited pathway’ followed by the youngster is enabling huge strides in his development.

Portsmouth chief: Toby is well above the curve

Sporting director Rich Hughes told The News: ‘I wouldn’t say having four goalkeepers currently in the building affects Toby’s future with us.

‘He just needs to keep playing games, that’s how we are approaching it. As a result, he is probably well above the curve in terms of the amount of games played for his age.

‘What we wanted to create this summer was an uninhibited pathway which he can continue until a point where he is good enough to challenge for the number one and number two shirt, which we think he might well be.

‘It’s about giving them that pathway and that platform to keep playing games and, by having the boys we’ve got in the building, it gives Toby that time.

‘The most important thing for Toby is to have time, keep progressing, keep developing and come back a better goalkeeper at the end of this season - then we’ll see exactly where he is.

‘The nice thing about Toby is he had a couple of knock backs a few years ago (Salisbury) and keeps taking things in his stride, keeps developing and keeps getting better. We are not going to stop him while he’s doing that.’

Five goalkeepers on Portsmouth’s first-team books

The deadline day arrival of Josef Bursik from Club Brugge took the number of goalkeepers on Pompey’s books to five.

Nicolas Schmid and Ben Killip have already featured this season, while Bursik was involved in a Blues squad for the first time against Sheffield Wednesday as an unused substitute.

Jordan Archer is also contracted at Fratton Park, although the Blues were open to letting him leave in the summer transfer and, subsequently, haven’t registered him in their 25-man Football League squad.

Finally there’s Steward, who, since 2022, has turned out on loan at Bognor, Salisbury, Gosport, Tonbridge Angels, Wealdstone, Crawley and now St Johnstone.

‘We’re always watching his clips’

Hughes added: ‘We’ve been keeping in touch with Toby and he was down on deadline day. St Johnstone had a day off and he flew down to see his family and popped into the football club.

‘We’re always watching his clips, Joe is speaking to him regularly and getting his clips from St Johnstone.

‘We have been really pleased for him and hopefully it ends well for St Johnstone. We extend our thanks to them based on how they handled everything with Makenzie and hopefully that’s a blossoming relationship which can benefit both parties.’

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